Thursday, April 8, 2010

The Parents Arrive - Day 4

On the fourth day of the visit, we departed from the volcano and headed to the beach. The view of the volcano was a bit better, but still not nearly as good as the first day.

As we went to breakfast, there was a hanging bride over a stream through the resort. I was quick to get Mom and Dad's picture, since Mom is so deathly afraid of heights! I was very proud.

On the way, we drove around 'Lago Arenal,' or Lake Arenal. This lake is man-made, and provides a great deal of power to the Costa Ricans via water generators in places where the water leaves. Note how green it is around this part of the lake, because literally two miles from here it turns into almost a desert.

The 'almost desert.' It reminded me a lot of West Texas in August during a 7-year drought. Yeah, it was that depressing. We learned later that the area near the beach, which was much more hilly with more trees, was a dry tropical forest. Does anybody else find that a touch ironic?

When we arrived to the hotel, we were still a bit early for check-in, so we went to the beach to have our lunch in the scorching heat (there is nothing similar to the heat on the beaches of Central America).

We played in the water until sunset. After sunset, the hermit crabs took over the beach. They were very fun to watch, and of course we had hermit crab races!